Sunday, 30 October 2011

TfL admits there is priority for different transport modes on London's streets - the Mayor and Conservatives claim there isn't. The result is more people being killed. Boris, make it safe to cycle. Now!

Cycle lane under the bus. Bow flyover. CourtesyDiamondGeezer blog

I was struck by an open letter on the pages of the London Cycling Campaign last week, written by a friend of Brian Dorling, the man struck down and killed on his bicycle at the ridiculously-designed Bow roundabout Bow cycle super highway.

Everywhere you look across London, you see the same theme cropping up again and again, namely that TfL is more concerned about safe and smooth streets for motor vehicles than about safe and smooth streets for pedestrians and cyclists. It is a policy that kills people for reasons that are utterly avoidable.

TfL's initial message about why it was abandoning previously agreed plans to create a safe junction for cycling and pedestrians at the north side of Blackfriars Bridge because it "would greatly restrict traffic movement"

So I was not at all surprised to see this comment from Transport for London last week in a note written to Labour Assembly Member John Biggs about Blackfriars: "It is true that [road] designs will involve some prioritisation of one mode over another."

There we have it. Transport for London finally admits that its streets do prioritise different modes of transport over each other. Something that is has striven to deny again and again since the Mayor Boris Johnson took office.

It's all smoke and mirrors. The Conservative party claims it does not support the priorities of one road user over another. The reality is that Transport for London knows it is creating a priority on London's streets. It is the priority of the motor vehicle. That's why those cycle lane pictures in this article are full of motor vehicles. They're not cycle lanes. They are bits of blue paint that won't interfere with motor traffic. Which is why more people are being killed in London on foot and on bicycle.

By failing to enforce a priority on London's streets, the Conservatives in London are tacitly allowing Transport for London to get away with it anyhow. TfL is - in my view - imposing a set of priorities through the back door. The motor vehicle is king. And if you want to cross the road or cycle in safety, you're going to have to fit in as a second class citizen.

Bollocks to 'encouraging cycling by emphasising it is cheap, healthy and quick'. Make it safe.